Jump

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /d͡ʒʌmp/

Definitions

1. To propel oneself upward or forward by pushing off with the legs and feet
2. To push off the ground and launch the body upward or forward using muscular force ; to move swiftly or abruptly from one place or position to another ; to rise rapidly or sharply in amount or level
3. To leap up by exerting force with the legs and feet ; to shift or change location suddenly and quickly ; to show a sudden or considerable upward change

Etymology: Jump is one of those verbs whose ancestry is more sound than syllable. Its earliest Germanic ancestor, reconstructed as "gumpōną", meant roughly "to hop, skip, bounce", and it appears across the northern Germanic languages in forms like Old Norse "gopta" and Swedish "gumpa". Scholars generally think it is imitative, a word shaped by the thump and bounce of a body leaping, rather than a loan from a single foreign tongue. In Middle English "jumpen" first meant to walk quickly or run as well as to leap, so the modern sense of springing into the air was only one of its early possibilities. It also crossed paths with "jumble", which shares its root and originally meant to mix or shake together, a reminder of how bouncing and tumbling were once close relations.

Synonyms: leap, bound, spring, vault, hurdle

Antonyms: fall, descend, drop, sink, plummet